Dal'qörian negatives

back to Dalcurian main page

In Dalcurian, there are two ways in which not is rendered.

Not with verbs

With verbs, not is rendered by the suffix ax/x. If the verb is already inflected with the future or conditional tense suffix, or is in the infinitive or past tense form, ax is added. x is added to the present participle. This is the only use x has in Dalcurian, therefore it is easy to recognize when a verb is in a negative state:

• qöhacria-approaching qöhacriax-not approaching

• gä’vaÞr-ran gä'vaÞrax-not ran (didn't run)

• quascrquas-would ask quascrquasax-would not ask

• göræ-will go göræax-will not go

Not with auxilliary and modal verbs

Modal verbs and the auxiliaries ábra/ádra and néba, do not take the negative inflection when being used with a main verb; the main verb carries the inflection. They can however, be used as a main verb, as in English (although this is colloquial), and must then take the inflection:

• Diö már, am dérÞ, sécösatrax. You can’t smoke in here.

• Binä Þöldr sécösatrax qoÞ. I shouldn’t be smoking anyway.

• Binä gä’qenár,, taÞ mæ ádra ni vötöj? Nál, mæ ábrax. I thought he had a car? No, he hasn’t. (A standard reply here would be néfaracte, akin to the German doch, but ábrax is used for the sake of the exmple).

• Sia voltirax tiÞ. She doesn’t want it.

• Binä ábrax eÞöa nömæaj. I don’t have any money. (Again, this is proper usage, colloquially a Dalcurian would say: Binä öna nömæaj-I'm without money).

Not with adjectives

With adjectives, not is rendered with the prefix stæ but most commonly equates the following prefixes in English (which normally denote the opposite of) but can carry the meaning of not:

• un: stædembrödn-unashamed (not ashamed)

• dis: stævehiqualosträdn-disassociated (not associated)

• anti: stæasötséal-antisocial (which carries the meaning of not sociable)

and some words that end in less:

• stævösérädn-useless (not useful)

With these kind of words, the prefix is permanent, just as their English equivalents are all one word, and so does not separate when written. However, in English these words can also be negatified:

• He's really antisocial. NO, he is not antisocial!

• It’s not undeniable that we all have moments of weakness.

• The company had not disassociated itself from the false advertisements and were fined heavily.

• You are not usless-on the contrary, so don’t listen to others!

But because, in Dalcurian, you cannot literally say: not antisocial, not undeniable etc, then you have to 're-phrase' these sentences (although this doesn't really apply to negative style verbs). This is where Dalcurian becomes a little 'undynamic'. Re-formulating the sentences can be down to the speakers style:

• Mæ disiri stæasötséal. Néfaracte, mæ asötséal esti! lit: On the contrary, he IS sociable.

• Minä näocr énandärax,, taÞ ela semér jonäøel, taÞ ƒrál. lit: One can deny not, that all posess moments, that are weak.

• Di méÞril, öcra di stævaÞri ösindédrämösel, gä’ádrastævehiqualostrax tiÞöra,, ön minäla vätösas gä'mömædr érenöra. lit: The company, from the false advertisements, dissaccociated not itself,, and they heavily fined them.

More on negatives following shortly ;-)